While there is no shortage of themes, page and app builders, or design aid services and resources, you still have to do some searching to make certain you choices are quality choices. This short list of high quality items covers most of the bases, and you can select one or more of these products or services with confidence. You naturally want to get your money’s worth, and that will definitely be the case here, plus one or two freebies have been included to sweeten the pot. If you see an item of interest, click on the hyperlink that takes you to a website for additional details.

WordPress Themes

X Theme

With its incredible new page builder as its central feature, the release of X Theme’s Version 4 has created more than just a stir. Cornerstone, the new and innovative page builder, created a virtual storm of rave reviews. Its intuitive, app-like interface, in combination with Themeco’s diverse selection of design elements, makes page building almost ridiculously fast and easy. X’s other features may have temporarily been taken out of the limelight, but it must be remembered that they are the reason this theme is ThemeForest’s fastest selling theme of all time, and will likely remain so. Your purchase of this theme gives you access to the many plugins created for WordPress by Themeco, plus you will have access to a dynamic community site, to information-rich forums, and to a user support team that is second to none in the industry.

Enfold

Enfold is an exceptionally easy to use WordPress theme. It is in fact its usability that has made this theme Themeforest’s best-rated top seller. Import a demo with a click, and you are ready to start building, or you can import several demos, and use design elements from each. Once you start building your very first website, you will understand why the editor is considered to be the easiest to work with of all of the WordPress themes. A multiplicity of features is a good thing to have, but they must be easy to put to use, and it is Enfold’s focus on decisions rather than features that makes it the powerful and delightful WordPress theme it is.

Be Theme

The first thing you may be tempted to do when visiting Be Theme’s website, is to browse through its 100+ pre-made layouts. In fact, they are so prominently displayed, you can hardly avoid doing so. These layouts include virtually any category you will be likely to design a website around. They represent design concepts, and they are definitely idea generators. They are also completely editable. These layouts will get your project off to a fast start, and Be’s 40+ other features will enable you to maintain your momentum. If you need it, you can expect more than a little help from the world-class support team, which is at the ready 24/7, and is a team that is well known for its rapid responses. Be is intuitive and lightning fast to work with, and by far one of the best choices you can make.

Website Builders and Platforms

XPRS

XPRS is more than a little different. If you are a whiz with Lego, you will feel you are in familiar territory when you first start using this website builder. XPRS’ building block system, which is embedded in its CMS, is called Polydoms. The building blocks differ from Lego blocks however, since they can be edited and modified. This website builder is also somewhat of a different breed in that you will not require the use of plugins to get your work done. It is free for students, artists, and non-profit organizations to use. Professional users pay yearly fee of $250, and receive unlimited licenses in return, allowing them to manage hundreds, if not thousands of clients’ sites. XPRS is incredibly easy to use and a real timesaver. Check it out.

Webydo

Webydo is a full-service SaaS platform led by its growing community of more than 175,000 designers and web agencies. This cloud-based, responsive web platform allows designers create, manage and publish their clients’ websites, code-free. With one-click hosting and client billing as standard features, Webydo eases the designer-client interaction brining a new level of professionalism to the website creation process. Webydo also enables you to manage multiple clients’ sites through its customizable dashboard. Excelling in design craftsmanship demands using the right tools: Developers have WordPress. Amateurs have Wix, Weebly and Squarespace.

WordPress Page Builders

Cornerstone

To say that Themeco’s recent launching of their Cornerstone page builder created some excitement would be an understatement. This innovative tool became an instant hit in the web design community, and its users are still raving about it. Many drag and drop page builders are easy to use, but few do most of the editing and previewing on the front end. Cornerstone features side-by-side, interactive displays of the edit and preview processes, making it possible for you to see the edits as they happen, and in a clutter-free environment. This page builder is definitely worth looking into.

Themify Flow

Themify Flow is another WordPress page builder that features front end editing. You can see the status of your work as you are building a page, obviating the necessity of having to check back later to see what you did. The number of templates you can design has no limit, the styling of individual design elements is quick and trouble-free, and you have total control over your layouts from start to finish. These characteristics makes Themify Flow difficult to ignore as a page builder of choice. One more thing: Since it is open source, you can use it for free!

Project Management and Collaboration Tools

Nutcache

If your project management tools have not been giving you the performance you need, Nutcache is the ideal solution you’ve been looking for. The same is true if you are looking for a better way to manage and improve your team collaboration efforts. This tool is a definite program management asset for tracking time, expenses, and project status, and for organizing and storing comments, documents, and project notes in its collaborative boards for eventual sharing. You will always be kept aware of your project’s status and your team will always be kept in the loop.

Azendoo

Some project planners and task manager tools only succeed in creating more work and more stress; objectives they were designed to minimize. Azendoo offers a more relaxing way to approach your work, yet keeping everything under control. With this task manager and project planner working for you, you can finally relax without fearing that everything will suddenly go out of control. Part of the secret to this application’s success is that it was intended for use as a collaborative teamwork tool. It offers an ideal solution to any issues you may be facing in attempting to keep your projects on track.

Converting Designs to Code

PSDGator

When your design is complete, and you are ready to let the developers take over, look to PSDGator to take your PSD files and convert them into W3C valid HTML/CSS, or HTML5/CSS3 if you prefer. One of the excellent features this service offers is to review your design and specification to see it if there are any outstanding issues to resolve before they commence with the coding. If you have existing sites that require recoding to become responsive, PSDGator will to that for you as well.

Direct Basing

HTML 5 slicing is their team’s specialty, and Direct Basing’s clientele consists of freelancers to Fortune 500 companies, and everyone in between. Whether your design has been captured in PSD files, Adobe Indesign or Illustrator files, they will make it web browser-ready. Fast loading time is always a top slicing priority, whether your need is for web pages, newsletters, emails, or web shops.

40 Dollar Markup

40 Dollar Markup converts Photoshop designs to W3C valid HTML/CSS. They also recode legacy PC websites to bring the code up to standard, and they convert desktop designs to responsive designs. This service does not use automated software. Everything is hand coded, and once the code has been delivered to you, 40 Dollar Markup will be there should you be in need of further support.

Hosting Services

Glow Host

If using a large, well-established hosting service will make you feel more comfortable, Glowhost will be an ideal solution. They have a reputation for providing the fastest and most accurate hosting services in the world, and their servers are located in 16 locations around the planet. Specialties include managed dedicated, managed cloud, and complex service cluster hosting services. Glowhost is definitely worthy of your consideration.

 Site 5

Whatever level of hosting support you require, Site 5 has a plan for you. Any plan you choose offers unlimited bandwidth and disk space, a disaster recovery backup service, free migrations, and 24/7 phone support. That’s a good deal for a low price. You also have the option to choose the hosting location, a choice which can influence how fast your website will load. Contact Site 5 by email or live chat if you would like to know more.

Stock Photo Agencies

Bigstock

With its library of 26 million images, Bigstock is aptly named. The number may seem overwhelming at first, but you will find it easy to quickly drill down to a few quality examples of what you are looking for, whether it is a photo, a vector, or an illustration. Take advantage of the 7-day free trial offer and pick up to 35 free selections to get started. After that, you can make your purchases by subscription or by prepaying for credits.

Stockfresh

Stockfresh also has a library that features millions of items, and they claim to have the best prices on the market for high-quality photos, illustrations, and vectors. As an added feature, the Stockfresh website is responsive, so you can browse their offerings, and make your selections, while you are out and about. Both prepaid and subscription plans are available.

Web Apps

Sendloop

If you do some or all of your marketing via email, the Sendloop web app might be just the right tool for you. It has everything you need to conduct you email marketing campaigns, including an excellent selection of mobile device-ready email templates, an online image editor, and a drag and drop email page builder. This high-quality specialty item is definitely worth a look.

Typeform

Typeform did to forms what Tesla has done with cars: completely redesigned online forms from the ground up. Typeform creates a beautiful and conversational form experience for your audience. You can embed images and video seamlessly into your forms to further clarify your questions. Build quizzes, take online payments, and even tell stories. The free version has crazy options.

UI Kits

Vonn Material Design Mobile UI Kit

When you need to design an Android mobile app in a hurry, and one that will feature a stunning array of material displays, the Vonn UI Kit can save your day. This drag and drop kit includes a selection of 100 classy templates placed in 9 convenient categories, so you can always find the template you need in order to get started in no time at all. Download the files on Photoshop and you are ready to go!

Ink iOS 8 Mobile UI Kit

The Ink iOS Mobile UI Kit is the right solution for you if speed and ease of use are among your top priorities. You can quickly create apps and/or prototypes using any of the 120+ Photoshop and Sketch screens included in this kit. They have been placed in 7 convenient categories to help you quickly zero in on exactly what it is you need. This mobile UI kit will make a nice addition to your toolkit.

Icons and Fonts

Icons Responsive

The name says it all. The way icons are displayed on mobile devices can make the difference between your design’s success or failure. The Icons Responsive library features more than 1000 scalable and responsive icons. They come in 4 sizes, and they are presented in outline, flat-filled, and round container styles. The icons are also in a vector format for editing purposes.

TrueSketch Hand-Drawn Font with Ornaments

TrueSketch fonts are completely handcrafted, practical to use, and fun to work with. Handcrafted fonts can be used for many things, but they can at times play a major role in helping to establish a brand. The package includes both standard fonts and italics, and a nice selection of stylistic alternatives. Desktop, web font, eBook, App, and Server licenses are offered.

Final remarks

Everything you see here is top quality, whether it is a product, a service, or a resource; so you need not be concerned about making a bad choice. If you have seen something of interest, visit the website and explore what the product or service provided has to offer. You might even want to do some comparison shopping.

We are always interested in whether you found something of interest or not. If you know of a product or service you feel should be included in our listings, let us know. Leave your ideas or comments below, and make it a point to visit us again.

Both mobile and web interfaces can be enhanced through proper icon use. There are many varieties and styles of icons, so it’s important to figure out when and why you’d need them. But the absolute best resources come in the form of premium iconsets with hundreds of different choices.

Take a peek at the following selection and see if any icons could be of use in future project work.

Not too long ago, I covered Social, a plugin that allows you to automatically publish Twitter and Facebook posts whenever you post something new on WordPress. Social is very simple and easy to use if all you need is Facebook and Twitter functionality. But if you’re looking for a plugin that can post to a lot more networks, with a robust set of features, SNAP (Social Networks Auto Poster) is the way to go.

SNAP allows you to connect your WordPress site to over two dozen social networks, among them Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr, Reddit, YouTube, Flipboard, and lots more (for a full list visit theplugin’s homepage). You can choose which of these networks you want to publish to whenever something new is posted on your site, or keep it manual so you can only selectively post to platforms. And settings can be tweaked for each individual network. So you can choose to manually post to Facebook, automatically push to Twitter and Tumblr, and use different messages for each.

After you install and activate the plugin, you will need to connect your WordPress install to the appropriate social network. Go to Settings -> Social Networks Auto Poster to get started. At the top, you will see a button labeled “Add New Account.” Click on this, and then select the network you want to connect to first. There are over 24 to choose from you, and you can do as many as you like.

Each social media channel has it’s own set of instructions for getting, set up, though most are very similar. For the sake of brevity and my own sanity, I’ll only focus on how to get Facebook set up here. But luckily, the plugin has full documentation for each one. Still, this should be good to get you started. So, for now select the “Facebook” option from the drop-down menu. Give the account a nickname, just what will be used by you to identify it, and the URL of your Facebook account. This can be your individual profile, a Facebook Group, or Facebook Page.

The next step is to actually create an API link with the Facebook platform. To do so, flip open a new tab and create an account at the Facebook Developers site, and click on Apps -> Create New App. This is essentially a way of you registering with the Facebook platform so they know that you are automatically posting to their network programmatically. So just give your App a name, description and category and create it. From there, you’ll want to go into your App’s Settings an “App Domain” and “Site URL.” These should both be the same, and should simply be the URL of your WordPress site, but if you are unclear about what it is, you can go back to the SNAP Settings page and copy and paste the “URL” and “Domain” fields that are in the top right. After you’ve added this info, click the “Save Settings.”

Now all you have to do is copy and paste the “App ID” and the “App Secret” codes from the Facebook developer site to the corresponding text fields on the SNAP Settings page. For the App Secret, you will most likely need to enter in your password to reveal. That’s all you’ll need from the Facebook Developers site.

Back on the SNAP Settings page, the next option is “Message Text Format.” This is something that you will need to specify on every platform that you set up, though the plugin has some logical defaults. It uses a series of shortcodes to define the dynamic content you might want to show when a Facebook post is published from your site. For instance “%TITLE%” will be replaced by the actual title of your post and “%EXCERPT%” will be replaced by a small excerpt. You can click the “Show Format Info” link to see a list of available tags. Customize the message however you want. The next step is to choose what kind of post you want, a purely “Text Post” a purely “Image Post” or a “Text Post with a Link”. The latter is probably the most common, and will automatically include a link back to your post. If you do choose this option make sure you also select “Let Facebook Fill the link info in”. When you’re all set, click “Update Settings”.

The network will be added to your active social network listings. To finish this up, you need to Test out the account, and finalize your settings, click the “Show Settings” link. This will bring up your basic settings, which you’ve already set up, but you will also see an “Advanced” Tab. This has more specific settings, such as limiting autoposting to a single category, or creating Facebook posts from WordPress content that has already been created. Feel free to explore this to get the most out of the plugin. But you will also need to flip back to the “Basic” tab, scroll down to the bottom and click the “Authorize Facebook Account” button. This will send a test post to your Facebook account so that you know if it’s working. Each one of the networks you set up will have this step, and it’s very useful in the debugging process. Also note that if you only want to post to Facebook selectively, you should uncheck the “Autopost” checkbox and click “Update Settings.”

At the top of the page you will also see a general “Settings” tab, which has some global options for the plugin. There is a lot that can be done with this, but I’ve found the defaults are pretty good. Still, you can choose certain privacy and security settings, like what user roles are allowed to post or autopost to social networks. You can also choose which custom post types or categories to include or exclude from autoposting simply by checking them off. You can also add support for a URL shortener, and tweak featured image settings to be more personalized. There are a few other things you can do on this page, so refer to the “Help” tab at the top of the page if you have any further questions.

If you’ve chosen to autopost your content to social networks, then there’s not much else for you to do. But, if you’ve left things manually, then you will notice a new metabox at the bottom of the post editor for posts and pages titled “Social Network Auto Poster – Post Options”. For each of the social networks you’ve set up, there will be a checkbox next to it, which you should check if you wish to post to that network. You will also be given a few options specific to that post, such as what kind of post to use, and what the content of the message should be. If you enable any of these before you publish a post, then the social media post will be automatically published when the WordPress post is.

As you can probably tell, there is so so much more you can do with this plugin that I barely touched on. The best way to get started is to just start playing with it, following help links, or going to the plugin’s official documentation for lots more information and tutorials.

SNAP is a free plugin, though there are several premium options available for those that want to support multiple accounts on the same platform, for those operating a WordPress multisite, or for those wishing to expose external API’s such as Google+, YouTube and Flipboard.

There is a lot of information in the plugin’s documentation and FAQ. If you have a specific problem though, you can either submit it through NextScript’s official support system, or through the plugin’ssupport forums.